


Warm

by CaffeineeOverdosee



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Possible Side Technoshipping, Slight Canon Divergence, i'll add more tags as i write more
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-13
Updated: 2017-10-13
Packaged: 2019-01-17 02:11:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12355305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaffeineeOverdosee/pseuds/CaffeineeOverdosee
Summary: Kai struggles with accepting himself and his sexuality but Ronin helps him work through it. It's only fair since Ronin was the one who made Kai question it in the first place.





	Warm

Kai was sitting on the floor of REX, still shaken from his ordeal with the strangle weed. He hated that he had the audacity to give Ronin the ninja's shares of Steep Wisdom, just to save his own life.

What would the others think? Having to work with a low life like Ronin.

As disgusted as he was, he managed to convince himself that he didn't regret it. He needed to live. For Lloyd.

That was the only thing that kept him going.

Lloyd.

He kept sinking into his own thoughts about what would have happened if the strangle weed had dragged him into the water. If Ronin hadn't been willing to negotiate a price. If  _he_ hadn't been willing to pay.

It was an endless cycle. He was starting to hyperventilate, slowly working himself up to the verge of a panic attack. That is until Ronin took it upon himself to snap Kai out of it.

"Kai." Ronin said.

Kai doesn't remember when Ronin had moved to kneel in front of him, the past 15 minutes have been a blur.

"Wha...?" Kai slurred, trying to focus his eyes on the face in front of him.

"Shit. I can't take you back like this. Stay here, I need to program REX's autopilot to land," Ronin then stood and moved toward the front of the ship.

Kai, not wanting to land or be left alone with his awful thoughts, tried to get up to follow Ronin. However, Kai's legs buckled beneath him and he flopped back on the ground uselessly.

The sound of Kai slumping back down on the metal floor of the airship caused Ronin to launch himself out of the drivers seat back where Kai was sitting.

Ronin sighs when he sees that Kai was fine, just frustrated that it was difficult to stand in his weakened state.

Kai seemed to relax pretty quickly after Ronin came back into his field of vision.

"Y'know, if you didn't want to be alone..." Ronin sighs again, knowing that Kai wouldn't have ever admitted to not wanting to be left alone.

He drops the subject. "I still need to program REX. Do you want to come this time?"

"We can't stop. I have to get back to everyone else. I didn't get the scroll. I have to save Lloyd. I promised him that I would look after him. He's gone. It's all my fault." Kai growled, angry at himself for failing Lloyd twice now.

"Listen, sweetheart. You need to calm down. Take a break. Besides, I might not get my payment if I take you back like this. You need to relax. Take a walk or something."

Kai bristled at his condesending tone. "Don't call me that."

Ronin rolled his eyes but had a smirk on his face.

"You don't understand. I  _can't_  relax. Morro is out there and he has the Scroll of Airjitzu. Lloyd-- You know what? You wouldn't get it! Who was I kidding? You don't care about anyone but yourself!" Kai spat, pouring venom into each word.

Kai tried to stand, he wanted to look Ronin in the eyes. He wanted to make sure that Ronin understood exactly what was happening to him. He wanted to give Ronin a piece of his mind for fucking everything up.

But he couldn't.

He finally managed to get up on his own and steadied himself by pressing his back against the wall, but when he looked up to give Ronin a piece of his mind Kai could see the unadalterated look of pain his face.

This was the first time Kai had ever seen an emotion that wasn't arrogance painted clearly on Ronin's face.

And as hard as it was for Kai to admit, he...sort of liked the purity of it. He wasn't hiding anything.

What made Kai bring out the best in Ronin? Kai supposed he wouldn't ever know.

"There's another way." Ronin said suddenly.

"What?"

Ronin cocked an eyebrow. "Air...spindo? You don't need the scroll to learn it. Isn't that what you wanted?"

Kai brightened up, quickly forgetting about apologizing to Ronin for what he had said. "Airjitzu! Finally something's going our way! How do we--" Kai stopped abruptly, scowling. "Wait...What do you want?"

"How about... you consider it a bonus for those shares."

"Really? You would give me the information...  
_For free_?" Kai marveled at Ronin's words, unsure if the thief was being sincere.

"Sure, I'm the reason you haven't learned airwhatsit. Might as well make up for it now." Ronin brushed off his sudden change in character.

"You mean Airjitzu."

"Sure, but there's one condition."

Kai groaned internally, but his face made it clear that he was displeased that there was a catch. _Oh, great of course there is._

"What else could you possibly need from me?" Kai cocked an eyebrow in frustration and scowled.

"I get a favor."

"A...favor?"

"It can be anything I want and I get to cash it in whenever I need it."

_Oh, God._

Kai sighed. "Fine." Kai then jabbed a finger, somewhat pathetically, into Ronin's chest. "The favor better be something easy."

Ronin laughed, "You won't be that lucky." He held his hand out to Kai. "So? We have a deal?"

"Fine. We have a deal" Kai repeated, shaking Ronin's hand lazily. Not because Kai didn't agree to the deal, but because he was still weak from his trauma. He couldn't find the strength to grip any harder than something classified as "lazy." Kai just hoped Ronin wouldn't notice. "So. How can we learn Airjitzu?"

Ronin cocked an eyebrow at Kai's weak handshake. _You'd think Wu would teach him some respect._

"Master Yang's temple. I don't know the specifics, but rumor has it you could find something there." Ronin began walking toward the controls again.

Kai grabbed Ronin's arm quickly before he could get any further, the sudden movement causing Kai to feel nauseous, "You'd better not land this thing."

Ronin smirks and raises his arms in a display of innocence, at least as innocent as _Ronin_ could be. "I wouldn't dream of it."

"Ronin. I'm serious." Kai said, pushing himself off the wall that had been propping him up the entire conversation. Kai hadn't really remembered how weak he felt until he had taken those first few steps away from the wall.

He blinked, his vision beginning to blur. _Ronin..._ was the last thing he thought before he collapsed on the floor.

\---

_Kai opened his eyes cautiously, half of his instincts demanding him to up and dash but he didn't. Because his other half, his trained half, told him to stay put and examine his surroundings._

_He couldn't tell where he was, but he knew he needed to get out._

_He was sitting on a cot in a damp room made of stone; there were no windows except for the one that was barred on the metal door._

_There was light shining through that single window, but not much. It still granted Kai a sense of hope. This hope was dashed when a humanoid shape blocked the light from his view._

_"Kai," the shape said, its voice echoing within the dark chamber._

_Kai pushed himself off the cot and stood. The figure knew he was there, no point in being careful about being spotted anymore. Kai pressed his back against the stone trying to comfort himself enough to respond confidently. "Who...Who are you?"_

_"Useless." The shape hissed, ignoring Kai's quesion. The voice was beginning to take shape and was becoming familiar._

_"Where am I?" Kai stared at the figure, none of its features were giving him a clue as to who it was._

_The next time the shape spoke it sounded as if two voices were overlapped, "You promised."_

_These words made Kai feel as if he were just punched in the gut. "Lloyd?"_

_"Oh yes, but not just Lloyd." The second voice seemed to be louder this time. Lloyd's voice was nearly drowned out by it. Nearly. "Don't forget about me Kai."_

Morro _. Kai curled in on himself._ How did I get here? Did Ronin sell me out? He wouldn't go that far...would he? Dammit! I thought I could trust him this time. How stupid could I be?

_Just then the cell door began to open; the metal dragging across the stone, creating a hellish screeching noise._

_Kai flinched at the noise but refrained from covering his ears. He couldn't show any weakness in front of Morro. And he had to be brave. For Lloyd._

_Lloyd-- Morro stood in the doorway, eyes glowing an unnatural, ghastly green. The scene could have scared any normal person, but it even scared Kai._

_Not because of his eyes, but because of the way he moved. He moved like Lloyd._

_Morro spoke again, "You're so pathetic--"_

_"Shut up, Morro." Kai growled, trying to convince himself that everything was okay with his own confidence._

_"You can't even recognize me. I thought we were brothers. This is your fault, Kai." Lloyd was inching closer to Kai with every word he said._

_"Lloyd, I..."_

_"Shut up. You're the reason I'm trapped inside my own body!" Lloyd grabbed a fistful Kai's gi and pulled him closer so they were inches apart. "You can't even keep your own promises!"_

_Lloyd pushed Kai into the wall, knocking the wind out of him. Kai fell to the floor trying to catch his breath and as he did he heard the screeching of the cell door closing._

_"Disgusting." Lloyd hissed, giving Kai one last glance before he stalked off toward the dim light._

_Filled with self loathing he didn't even move to get back on the cot. He just lay on the clammy, stone floor, not allowing himself to give into the sobs that he trapped in his throat._

_"Kai." A new figure opened the cell door. Kai pushed himself up to look at this new visitor._

_"Wh-What do you want?" Tears started spilling out of his eyes. There was no way to stop them. He just wanted to be left alone to die, it would be best for everyone_

_"Kai."_

\---

"Kai!"

Kai's blue eyes flew open to see Ronin leaning over him.

"Where...?" Kai couldn't recognize where they were. The last thing he could remember was being locked in a-- No. That wasn't right.

"You passed out. Most likely from lack of sleep, so I landed. It's not very comfortable on the REX's floor so I brought you here. I wouldn't have woke you up but...You were starting to cry. Don't even get me started on the yelling."

Kai reached up to touch his face and found that it was wet from tears. He wiped them away quickly.

Ronin didn't ask why he cried or even mention it again after that. Instead, he continued to give Kai the gist of what was going on because he still looked disoriented. "You owe me for this room by the way. They are charging way too much for a room with only _one bed_." Ronin moved to sit on the edge of the bed, he pulled a blade from a holster hidden within his boot. He threw it in the air, catching it easily.

It took Kai a few moments to remember what was real and what was fake.

_You were never in that cell. That was just a dream. Snap out of it. Lloyd never said any of those things. He doesn't hate you. You can still save him._

For now, Kai had to push away his doubts because Ronin was waiting for a response. It took Kai another couple of minutes to comprehend what Ronin just said. Then it hit him. "One bed?! There is no way I'm sleeping anywhere near you."

Ronin laughed, throwing his head back in amusement. "I'm just fucking with you, there's another bed." He threw the knife in the air again.

"You..." Kai groaned, feeling his face flush in embarrassment. Kai ignored it and changed the subject. "Why aren't we back with the others now? I don't have time for your bullshit, Ronin."

Ronin caught the knife, his smile gone as he looked at Kai with a level of intensity that made him shift uncomfortably on the cheap mattress. "Did you not hear what I just said? You passed out. You needed a break. You're lucky I'm kind enough not to make you pay extra for all the trouble I went through to get you here."

"That doesn't matter. Lloyd-- Wait. How did you get me here?" Kai's eyebrows furrowed, weary about what could have been done to his unconcious body.

Ronin rolled his eyes. "I carried you. How else? I didn't do anything else if that's what you're worried about."

He threw the knife once more; Kai's eyes followed the blade.

Ronin caught it as Kai said, "Can you stop tossing that thing around?"

"What this?" Ronin smirked and tossed the knife again, but this time it was the blade that landed in his hand rather than the handle. "Fuck!"

The knife clattered on the floor and blood dripped from a fresh cut on Ronin's hand.

"You dumbass. This is why I told you to stop." Kai got out of bed. His knees threatened to give out underneath him, but he wouldn't let them. He went into the bathroom and came out with one of the hotel's fresh washcloth.

He tore it into a strip with his teeth, which caused Ronin to cringe. "You realize you have to pay for that now right?"

"Shut up." Kai grabbed Ronin's hand and began wrapping it around the gash on his palm. Kai was very focused on the wound. He couldn't bring himself to look at Ronin, who had a light blush dusting his face. "There. You have actual first aid supplies in REX, don't you?"

Ronin's head snapped up to look at Kai, "Ah, no...Fresh out of band aids."

"Are you seriously telling me that you only had bandaids in your kit?"

Ronin hesitates.

"Jesus. I'm going back to bed."

Kai starts to head to the bed that Ronin wasn't sitting on but stops when he hears Ronin say something uninteligable.

"What?" Kai whips around to look at Ronin.

"I said thank you." Ronin looked up from his hand, he seemed to be really facinated by it. "Don't let that inflate your ego, I'm only thanking you."

Kai tried to sneer in response, but was too tired to bother. Instead, he flopped down on the bed falling asleep the instant his head hit the pillow.

\---

_When Kai woke up he felt warm. He felt better than he had in a long time actually. He felt like he could relax. Even if it was only for a few moments since everything was still fucked._

_Maybe Ronin was right, maybe Kai did need a break._

_He kicked his legs off the bed and let his legs hang there for a second before he pushed himself the rest of the way out of bed._

_He didn't have an extra set of clothes so he had slipped back into the gi he wore yesterday. He had nearly tore it off in the middle of the night when the room became unbearably hot._

_Kai almost forgot that Ronin was still in the room in his sleepy haze, but when he turned toward the bed Ronin should have been in, it was empty._

_Kai shrugged, he just assumed that Ronin was waiting on REX or in the breakfast area._

_He decided that despite how he wanted to relish in his contentedness for a while longer, it would be best to find Ronin and get back to the others._

_He swung the door open, but instead of a quiet hallway he was at the base of a trecherously tall mountain._

_He closes the door behind him and suddenly feels like going back into the room to hide. The mountain didn't seem to end and there didn't seem to be a way around it. However, when Kai tries to open the door once more to escape, he found that the door was locked._

_He sighs, the content feeling gone and replaced with fear._

_A sickly bird landed in front of him. It's feathers dirty and discoloured. It's eyes were dull, and it was thin as if no one had bothered feeding the poor thing in years. It's wings looked useless except to lift itself a few inches higher when it jumped. It seemed to beckon Kai closer. Kai felt gravitated toward the creature, but at the same time he was terrified of it._

_He glanced behind him at the locked door. How he would love to go back, but the bird cocked it's head toward the cliff Kai would need to climb to find civilization._

_The bird hopped up the mountain face not far ahead of him, that is until the two reached a steeper section of the mountain face._

_The bird was obviously having difficulties flying up to the top, but Kai ignored it. He was too focused on making sure he would get up there._

_The bird cawed from a couple ledges up, Kai's head snapped up to look at the bird. "How did you-- aH!" He cried, his foothold crumbled beneath him. He desperately searched for another, running his foot along the face of the mountain until his foot hit something that would hold him._

_The bird watched him through all this from a couple ledges above. "What are you looking at?" Kai said, hostility dripping from his voice. It didn't even occur to him that he was speaking to a bird._

_Slowly but surely, the pair made their way to the top of the cliff. The bird tried to lead Kai by landing on ledges that would get him up the safest, but Kai was angry at the bird for making him go through this. Had it been his choice he would have ignored the bird an stayed locked in the hotel room._

_He knew how unhealthy that was, but Kai didn't care. He wanted to feel content again, but now he just hated himself._

_It was an unfortunately vaguely familiar feeling; it felt similar to how it felt when Lloyd was caught. When he felt disgusted that he didn't keep his promise._

_This time though, the feeling was amplified. He felt almost as if he shouldn't exist._

_He was always so confident before. But the bird...The bird made him question everything he ever was._

_Kai tried his best to push this feeling away, to go back to how he felt before. It was silly after all to believe that only a bird could make Kai think these things._

_But he couldn't._

_Instead, he reached the top of the mountain face. It made him feel a bit better._

_Awful thoughts changed into confused, but more hopeful ones. Kai was beginning to believe there was a chance that he could feel right again._

_He looked to the bird. It seemed to be a lot better, less sickly definitely. It's wings were definitely not strong enough to be flying around yet._

Maybe I should help it out. It did try to help me.

_Kai has always been awful with animals, so he didn't know what to do. That didn't stop him from pretending like he knew exactly what he was doing._

_"Here." he said, as softly as he could (which wasn't much quieter than his normal voice) and kneeled down next to the bird._

_He held out his arm and flinched when the bird landed on his shoulder. The talons were a lot sharper than expected, but he did his best to ignore it._

_After a few more moments of admiring how far he...they had come, the duo turned their backs to the cliff face they just climbed and headed into a dark forest._

_There was a path but there were many forks in it and honestly Kai had no idea where he was going._

_Left. Right. Right. Center. Left._

_He just chose whichever path seemed clearest and easiest to move through. This wasn't his best course of action because eventually he reached a dead end._

_"Fuck!" He yelled at the sky. "Why is this so hard?!" The bird glided off his shoulder, landing in front of a pile of rocks and rubble that looked like the aftermath of a rockslide._

_"You! You did this. This happened because of you! I never had to go through this!" Kai was screaming, ignoring the fact that he was blaming his fear, exhaustion, and confusion all on a bird._

_Kai heaved a big rock and hurled it at the bird._

_Generally. He missed by several feet._

_The rock instead hit the rubble that the bird was sitting near. A few rocks were knocked from their place in the barrier leaving a hole behind._

_Kai paused, seeing the new mouth open wide within the wall of rocks._

_"Woah..." Kai stared at the hole for a few more seconds before frantically tearing rocks from the pile. It didn't take long for Kai to create a hole large enough for him to fit through_

_"A tunnel?" The bird flew up and landed on Kai's shoulder once more. The bird...nodded? "Alright...here we go."_

_The tunnel was long. There wasn't any visible light at the end of it._

_Kai trailed his hand along the wall of the tunnel and took slow careful steps. His breathing was uneven and the only thing you could hear besides Kai's footsteps._

Maybe...this wasn't such a good idea. What's the use? I'll never reach the otherside. I'll never find Ronin.

_Kai was so lost in his own inner doubts that he just barely heard the bird chirp quietly. It was reassuring and Kai managed to pull himself back to reality._

_The further he got, the more scared he was to reach the otherside._

What if there isn't another side? What if this is it? I'll be stuck here.

_And in that moment he saw a dot of light in the distance. It was small, but it was enough to cause Kai to rush toward it._

_Forgetting about how he couldn't see where he was going, forgetting that he could fall deeper into the mountain. He was so relieved that he abandoned all rational thoughts and just ran._

_The light grew bigger and the bigger it got the more hopeful Kai felt, and it didn't take long for Kai to finally reach the end._

_Kai looked to the sky and laughed. He made it. He can finally feel okay._

_It was only a few moments that he could relish in this feeling alone because a voice interrupted his thoughts._

_"Kai." It said._

_Kai turned to see none other than Ronin. After all that he had been through he couldn't have been happier to see another person, even if it was Ronin._

_"Ronin. You're here. I made it!" Kai cried, feeling extremely touchy thanks to the overwhelming emotion that came with his accomplishment. He launched himself into Ronin's arms and shoved his face in the crook of his neck._

_"Woah, it's only been a few hours since you've seen me. Miss me much?" Ronin smirked._

_Kai shoved him off of him and laughed. It definitely hadn't felt like only a few hours to him._

_Ronin took a moment to look at Kai, he was relieved and his grin showed that he had finally relaxed a bit. Ronin had to admit that it was a good look on him. "Let's go home."_

_The two then began to walk into the unknown, but they knew they were together and that's what mattered. The bird cawed in the distance, no longer needing Kai's attention. And in that moment Kai smiled, finally feeling whole again._

\---

Kai's eyes opened slowly, he didn't feel panicked after waking up this time. It was more of a content feeling. Kai liked it. He knew he had too much to worry about for it to last so he ignored it.

He looked over to the bed Ronin supposedly slept in. Ronin wasn't there, the bed was cold. It was obvious that he hadn't been there for at least an hour or so.

The sun was just now beginning to show itself, inching its way above the horizon.

To think that Ronin got up before the sun rise. For a man who talked about Kai's lack of sleep more than anyone Kai knew, he definitely didn't sleep much.

Kai pushed himself out of bed, it had become a habit of his to pull off his clothes while he slept. It was always just too hot with clothes on.

So he picked his gi up off the floor and treaded into the bathroom for a shower.

 _That was a weird dream..._ He thinks, running his hands through his hair, which was no longer perfectly spiked since he made the decision to sleep with gel still in it. _Did the dream mean something more? God I'm starting to turn into Zane._

He knew that it was perfectly likely that they did have some deeper meaning but never really had the time to think about it. However, now that his dreams were becoming coherent it was starting to freak Kai out a little.

Didn't matter now, though. He still needed to get to the others. He just hoped they would be at Steep Wisdom like he thought they would.

He stepped out of the shower with a towel wrapped around his waist, his hair lacking its usual gel. It was a new feeling having his hair soft.

His hair had little to no volume on its own, so it flopped in front of his face. He despised this so he began to french braid it.

He knew he had a rubberband on him, he kept one around his wrist for times like these. Nya always told him that a rubberband wasn't a good thing to use on his hair but he definitely wasn't going out to buy any actual hairbands.

Once he was finished with the short braid he tied it off and turned to see that Ronin had come in.

"Hey, Ronin." Kai said, nonchalantly. He forgot that he was only wearing the towel that hung low on his hips until he noticed Ronin making his best effort not to look in Kai's direction.

"I, um... I'll wait for you to get decent. I'll be back...when you're done." Ronin then shuffled out of the room, blushing.

Kai just shrugged an proceeded to get dressed. It took a lot less time for him to get ready when he didn't have to sit in front of the mirror for an hour slicking his hair up into unnatural spikes.

He stopped for a moment and decided it would be a good idea to grab another washcloth for Ronin's hand. After all, Ronin was an idiot and didn't have good first aid supplies. A clean make-shift bandage may help prevent a possible infection, Kai just hoped it wasn't already infected.

So he snatched one and shoved it in his waistband, since he lacked pockets. He scanned the room one last time and dashed outside to see that Ronin was already in REX.

"You comin' or what?"

Kai ignored his question, "You did pay for the room didn't you?"

"You don't... trust me? I saved your life!" Ronin faked an offended look.

Kai just rolled his eyes, but stepped onto the airship anyway.

"How far away is Steep Wisdom?" Kai asked, slumping into the passenger's seat. Everyone had to be worried about him by now...right?

He had been gone for hours. He could have died. How would they cope without him? Would they fall apart like they did when Zane died? Or would they simply move on no problem?

"About 45 minutes." Ronin said, "So you're stuck with me for a bit longer."

Kai didn't reply, he only nodded a scowl painted on his face. This seemed to be his default look whenever Ronin was around. Ronin had after all been very difficult in the negotiations for the scroll. Kai wasn't letting that go anytime soon, even though Ronin had redeemed himself by giving Kai another chance to learn airjitzu.

Kai leaned on the dash of the airship, staring out the window in quiet contemplation.

It was too early in the morning for the sky to be a perfect blue. Instead, it was painted with pink and purple clouds and was tinted orange around where the sun sat still just underneath the horizon.

On the other side of the sky it was still dark. It was a blue-gray colour that faded into white, yellow, then orange when Kai turned his head to look at the brighter side of the sky. The darker side was still beautiful, but people are always so absorbed in sunrises that the miss it. The stars that disappear into the day one by one. The moon that slowly fades away leaving room for the sun to shine.

Not that it matters. That's what sunrises are for. Banishing the darkness of night. Why would anyone notice the night at one of the most beautiful times of day?

The day was too firey and active to even dare let the night be noticed. Which was entirely too bad because the night was beautiful, too.

Kai continued to stare at the sky even after the sunrise had already ended. He, afterall, had nothing better to do. Besides talking to Ronin, of course, but like hell he was going to do that.

Of course, that comfortable silence was gone now the sun finally was hung just above the horizon. It felt as if some huge event had ended and now the two were stuck not knowing what to say to each other.

Shortly after the awkward silence seemed to begin, Ronin kept giving Kai odd glances, but he learned to ignore them pretty quickly. That is until they were no longer glances. The looks were walking the fine like between a glance and a stare.

Eventually Kai snapped, "What are you looking at?"

"Well I was trying to see how much gas I have left, but you're in my way."

"Tch, could have just asked." Kai said, leaning back into his seat. He felt something tug at his waistband as he did and instinctively reached for whatever pulled at it.

The washcloth was still tucked away in his waistband, forgotten in his frustration about Ronin's...personality.

He pulled it out of his waistband. "You need to change that bandage." Kai didn't even look at Ronin, he just held out the extra washcloth.

"You...stole this." Ronin commented. He didn't look at Kai, either.

Kai felt an undying urge to whip his head around and deny the accusation. But it was true.

"Yeah...well. I can't let your cut get infected because you don't have a decent first aid kit. Believe it or not, people can actually do nice things for others without being paid for it."

Ronin's smirk faded into a slight scowl. He didn't respond, he merely grumbled and they were stuck again in that awkward silence that would forever haunt them.

Ronin briefly put REX on autopilot to rewrap his hand, but only to rewrap his hand. Not a second longer.

"We could have just used autopilot to get there..." Kai didn't know what had compelled him to say anything.

They could have stayed quiet for the rest of the trip, there was only about...a half an hour left.

Kai felt like these past 15 minutes have been the longest in his life. He suddenly felt hyperaware of how long everything was taking. How long it took for a mountain peak to disappear in the distance. How long it took for the clouds to creep across the sky. How long it took for Ronin to respond.

This feeling stopped once Ronin broke the silence again.

"I don't trust autopilot for long distances. Besides, she deserves better than being stuck on autopilot all the time. I don't mind driving. It's relaxing. Not that you know what relaxing is." Ronin cocked an eyebrow and smirked but never turned to look directly at Kai.

"What? I relax all the time."

Kai looked genuinely confused at Ronin's comment and Ronin scoffed. "Remember yesterday when you passed out from overwork? You would probably blackout from standing up too fast. That's how little you relax."

Kai opened his mouth to spit out a clever retort, but shut it again. Ronin was right, Kai supposed, but only under these circumstances.

Kai can't relax when Ninjago is on the line. Or when his _family_ is in danger. Those things do tend to happen frequently, but the downtime inbetween? Kai does nothing but relax! And train from...time to time.

"Hmph. That's what I thought. I guess I'll just have to show you how to relax." Ronin sighed in disappointment, as if he believed that he was obligated to get Kai to chill.

"Wait...what?"

"This is the condition. I want to get you to relax."

"Seriously? Of all the selfish things you could have asked for... you're actually going to help me relax?"

Ronin paused at this, averting his gaze so he couldn't even see Kai in the corner of his eye. "Call it a change of heart."

"Right...Fine."

"I guess I'll have to drag your ass off the Bounty sometime...not sure when. It'll be spontenous." Ronin chuckled looking back toward the sky.

"Heh..." Kai tried to chuckle, too, but in reality he wasn't exactly comfortable with the thought of spending more time with Ronin. What's worse? They would be hanging out alone. Like they were on a _date_.

Kai sighs, lost in thought about why Ronin would care this much about his mental health. He barely cared about it. He was fine. Not only was that weird wasn't hanging out one on one...couldn't it be seen as... _gay_?

Kai groaned internally. What would the guys think if he were gay? Kai isn't sure he wants to know.

"Kai?"

"What?" There was an exasperated edge to Kai's voice that he hadn't intended to add.

Ronin glanced at him, eyebrows furrowed. He paused and took in Kai's face until he looked away again to respond. "Ah... We are nearly there. Thought you would want to know."

"Good. I think this has been the longest 45 minutes of my life."

Ronin smiled that awful smirk again but didn't say another word.

It didn't take long for Steep Wisdom to finally come into view. It was a comforting sight. Kai can't say he has ever been happier to see a tea farm in his life.

Once REX landed, Wu, Misako, Nya and the other 3 ninja swarmed around the airship. They were all eager to see if Ronin had heard from Kai or knew if anything had happened to their teammate.

"Ronin!" Cole barked, shoving his way through the others. Where the hell is Kai? Have you--" and at that moment Kai finally stepped off the airship in all his exhausted glory.

Everyone noticed pretty quickly that Kai's hair wasn't gelled like it usually was but no one seemed to mention it. Instead, they all decided to grin hopelessly, happy that he hadn't been dragged to the bottom of the sea or been captured by Morro.

"Kai!!" Jay said, "Thank god, you're alive!"

Nya threw herself at him. "I was worried as hell about you!!" She pulled away to hit him, he grunted and curled in on himself. "Don't ever scare me like that again."

"Okay, okay I won't. Chill, sis." Kai laughed, weakly.

"Uztijria fo llorcs eht teg uoy did?" Zane tried to say, but his language processor was still damaged so no one was able to understand him.

Everyone took a moment to process what Zane had asked. Unfortunately, no one was able to decipher what the nindroid had said. They all gave him an apologetic look and Zane groaned in response. He opened his mouth to try again, but shut it since no one would understand anyway.

"I really need to get that fixed..." Jay said more to himself than anyone else, since everyone had already moved on and was busy questioning Kai to notice or respond.

"Did you get the scroll of airjitzu?" Cole finally asked. The question of the hour.

Kai didn't even need to answer. The guilty look on Ronin's face and the angry one on Kai's were enough to figure that one out.

Kai clenched and unclenched his fists a couple times, trying his best to work through his anger so he would be able to respond calmly.

"No. I didn't." Kai sighed, but brightened a bit when he said, "But Ronin said there might be another way."

Once those words left Kai's mouth everyone began speaking at once.

"Really? This is awesome--"

"Yaw rehto eht s'tahw?!"

"How do we learn it? Is there a second scr--"

"That's great, Kai, but what did you give him? Knowing you, you didn't think twice before agreeing."

Everyone stopped talking at Cole's stern words. All eyes were on Ronin. Kai was a terrible negotiator. What did they lose?

Kai opened his mouth to respond but Ronin beat him to it. "He gave me the four of your shares to the tea farm. Two for his life. Two for the information." Ronin's eyes glanced at Kai then looked back toward the other three ninja.

Kai knew that this was not how what the deal was. He gave the 4 shares to save his life _and_ a favour for the second way to learn airjitzu. He wanted to correct Ronin but he decided against it.

When the others looked over at Kai for confirmation he attempted to nod his head but Ronin interrupted him once more.

"What you don't trust me?"

"No. Not even a little." Cole stated, bluntly. "Now, would you let him answer?"

Ronin grunted, but nodded inticating that he would keep quiet.

Cole turned back to his red clad teammate. "Kai?"

"Yeah... 4 shares to the tea farm." Technically he didn't lie, and Kai tried to convince himself of that. It wasn't working though, the thought of lying to his team made him squirm.

But here he was anyway. Knee deep in a pointless lie that did nothing for him.

There was no use in lying. He did it because Ronin...looked at him. Those maroon eyes just seemed to beg him to latch onto the lie.

He couldn't take it back now.

"See?" Ronin said, suddenly. He sounded a lot more relieved than Kai would have liked.

Kai scowled at Ronin and he smirked confidently at Kai. However, Ronin's eyes told a different story. His eyes said he was afraid.

Kai ignored him.

"So...how do we learn it then?" Jay said, buzzing with excitement.

Kai smiled at Jay's eagerness. "We need to go to Master Yang's temple. Ronin says there might be something there."

"Alright. We will head out as soon as possible." Cole stated.

Kai felt an urge to ask who made him leader, but then remembered that Cole was the best canidate without Lloyd around. Cole had been leader at one point so it made sense that everyone fell back into the previous chain of command.

Kai wondered what took them so long to realize that they would have gotten things done a lot quicker that way. Maybe Cole doesn't like to be the leader. He had no problem letting the other three lead. That is until they were too dysfunctional to get anything done.

"Actually... Can we wait a bit to leave? I want--"

Kai was interrupted by Cole who was smiling like he knew something no one else did. "You want to do your hair, don't you?"

Kai scoffed. "Of course I do. You know how much I hate when I have--"

"To braid it." Jay finished for him. "Yeah, yeah, we know Kai. Just get on with it otherwise Morro will figure out the second part of the message before we have even completed the first!"

Kai chuckled. "Okay, I won't take long I promise."

Nya rolled her eyes. "We all know you're lying. Just go."

> So Kai walked off toward the tea farm, the last thing he heard before he was out of earshot was: "Okay, Zane. Since we have time I might as well get your language processor fixed."

The familiarity of Steep Wisdom relaxed him. The scent of tea and other obscure herbs filled his senses. He took a few moments to take in the tea farm's calm atmosphere, then he headed in the back where the bathroom was.

Luckily, he had gel stashed in nearly every bathroom they had, so it was no issue finding any of it.

Then, he got to work.

Of course, moments like these where when his mind was the most active. This was not always a good thing especially after today. His dreams, Lloyd, Ronin... He had too much to think about. It was overwhelming.

Unfortunately, his ego wouldn't allow him to admit that he didn't want to be alone with his thoughts. So instead, he stood in the bathroom overthinking things.

_Lloyd can't actually feel that way right? It was only a dream... But it's possible. I did break my promise to him... Why did I hug Ronin in my dream? Ugh. Gross._

And the cycle continued. Never ending thoughts such as these and they didn't stop until he was satisfied with his hair.

He pushed open the door to see Ronin standing not too far away with an apple in his hand.

Ronin smirked when he saw Kai emerge from the bathroom. "It takes you an hour to do your hair?"

"Shut up, Ronin." Kai snapped.

"What? I was only gonna say that I liked it the other way better." Ronin said, simply. He took a bite of his apple and responded while he was still chewing. "Well, I better go see how Misako is doing. Good luck on your mission."

Kai tried to think of a snarky response before he walked away but all Kai could think about was what Ronin said. _'I liked it the other way better.' Was...he serious?_

Kai shook his head to dispel his thoughts. _Stop thinking that way. Let it go. You have other things to worry about._

Kai sighed and rubbed his face. Everyone was already waiting outside for him ready to go. They all had figuring out how long his hair would take down to an artform.

He stepped out of the tea farm, completely unprepared mentally for today's events. But at least his hair was done.

Zane smiled when Kai walked out and began to yell, "KAI? ARE YOU READY TO GO?"

"Woah! That's a little loud. Knock it down a few." Kai said, rubbing his ear.

"Sorry. That's my fault." Jay chuckled nervously. "I tried fixing his language processor, but something went wrong. Now he can only yell. At least we can understand him now."

"YES. IT WAS VERY FRUSTRATING BEFORE BECAUSE NO ONE WOULD LISTEN TO ME."

Zane, excited to be included in a conversation, responded a bit too loudly for Jay to handle. This caused him to flinch away a bit but he didn't move to cover his ears, out of a slight fear that Zane would be upset and not say much anymore. They all needed Zane's level head to get through this mission. After all, the temple they would be visiting was rumoured to be haunted.

Kai laughed. "Yeah, now everyone in a ten mile radius will be able to hear you."

Zane started to heat up in embarrassment.

Jay put a hand on Zane's shoulder. "It's okay, man. It's not your fault. You're just so complicated I'm still figuring you--Ow!"

Zane looked alarmed and pulled away from Jay. "SORRY!"

Jay winked at him. "It's okay! I forgot how hot and bothered you always get when you're embarrassed."

Jay chuckled but it quickly turned to panic when he realized that Zane was overheating. Jay threw open Zane's chest and Kai heard clanks of the metal and Zane sighed suddenly.

"Sorry! I forgot that you can overheat. I shouldn't have said that." Jay rushed to apologize but cracked a smile when Zane laughed loudly.

"I think you got a free pass on that one, Jay." Cole smirked, and slapped Jay on his back.

Jay sputtered and blushed. "Ack! Yeah. Anyway, can we get going?"

"Someone's eager." Kai said, grinning.

"Yeah, well..."

Zane hesitated to respond but did anyway despite his volume. "NEED I REMIND YOU THAT WE ARE BEHIND?"

"Zane's right. We need to go." Cole stated. "We just need to figure out how we are going to get there. The Bounty is out. It's too big for the area. We wouldn't be able to land."

"Zane?" Kai asked. He left the question open ended on purpose mostly because he didn't know what he was asking. Luckily, Zane would.

"ACCORDING TO PIXAL, THERE IS A TOUR BUS THAT LEAVES FROM A VILLAGE A FEW MILES FROM HERE. IT LEAVES IN 15 MINUTES. IF WE CATCH IT THEY'LL TAKE US RIGHT THERE."

Cole clapped once. "Great. We can still make it there then?"

Zane opened his mouth to respond, but out of the corner of his eye he saw Jay move to cover his ears so he opted for a nod instead.

Cole smiled and started walking toward the bounty. "Let's get a move on then!"

Jay went to follow but stopped. "I thought you said we couldn't take the Bounty?"

"We are gonna need to get to the village somehow. We'll miss the bus if we don't take the Bounty."

"Ah. Right." Jay started walking again.

Kai lagged behind them with Zane. "Hey, uh... Zane?"

Zane turned to look at Kai silently, then Zane nodded to show that he was listening.

"Ah... Well I had a couple dreams that I...need interpreting? You'd know about that stuff right?"

"PIXAL DOES, SO WE COULD HELP YOU WITH YOUR DREAMS."

Cole and Jay glanced back at the pair but said nothing.

"Shh! I know you can't help it but this is a bit personal." Kai sighed, "You know what? I'll ask you again when you can be quieter."

"OKAY. I'LL BE WAITING."

Once the four got on the Bounty, Cole spoke up. "Okay, Zane. You're the only one who knows where this village is so can you take the wheel?"

Zane nodded and headed toward the control room on board. Cole joined him shortly after. This freed Kai and Jay to mess around on the deck.

Jay decided sit and play with a small action figure of Zane he had found in a shop a long time ago. It was worn down, the paint was chipping away and the poor thing was missing an arm but it was one of Jay's favourite fidgets so he didn't mind too much.

Kai simply leaned on the railing and felt the wind on his face. It was quite relaxing after the morning he had. It was only 9 in the morning and Kai already wanted to sleep. It wasn't his fault. He blamed Ronin. Ronin was the one who had a personality so frustrating that it exhausted Kai.

Kai sighed and tried to push away all thoughts of Ronin. The scruffy thief had occupied most of his thoughts the past day or two and Kai didn't think he could handle it much longer.

Kai had more important things to worry about and he knew this. He just couldn't get this one man out of his mind.

 _Ronin_.

**Author's Note:**

> Guess who hates himself for posting this? Me. I just want to see who else ships this because there is next to no content for this because it is just THAT RARE. Also, if anyone actually wants to see some side technoshipping ill try to incorperate it more?? I'm still on the fence on whether or not I should explicitly include it or not? Anyway. Thanks for reading this?? I hope you enjoyed it lol


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